


Paper Cranes

by Akely



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe, Demons, Exorcists, F/M, Master/Servant, Onmyoji/Shikigami, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 22:05:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15180362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akely/pseuds/Akely
Summary: One thousand paper cranes can fulfil a unique wish but a shikigami is an eternal friend and partner. Well, perhaps not for Okita and Kagura. He's a talented Onmyouji who refused to take in any shikigami and she's a priceless demon— from the powerful Yato clan.Was their meeting decided by fate, after all?





	1. Pieces of wish

Someone was coming for her ass. 

To be exact, she had been pursued since a hour of two and it was becoming hard to continue. The trappers were well-prepared and competent, they had weakened her with vicious bullets— something able to slow down her regeneration capacity— and it hurt like hell. She probably had been tracked down since at least a month, as they perfectly knew when she was vulnerable: during sunny days and where did she usually go in the mountain. The others never accompanied her during one of her ballad, the area was usually safe and no one sane would dare to penetrate the Yato’s territory.

Kagura didn’t know whether to qualify the hunters of smart or simply stupid.

They had been playing hide and seek for a while now, with all the trees surrounding them it would have been easy to hide if not for the bloodstains she left. Jumping in green wouldn’t do— she was clad with red cheongsam. In all, she would analyse the situation to be pretty much _fucked_. Yato or not, she was losing her vision and blood, each steps meant pain and darkening sight while fear filled her mind.

Humans themselves did not scare her, she could easily dislocate their bones and pulverize them into a quivering mass of flesh which meant a horrible death for them. However, their greed was as insatiable as blood for a Yato, it was never enough.

She heard the trivial sound of shouts coming closer. They probably understood which way she went for, right corner to end up in a deeper forest but she knew. It wasn’t going to conclude well for her, and for them. Kamui, Mucchan were going to find and avenge her in a violent massacre, which Kagura didn’t really agree to. Anyway, it will took them times to find her, meanwhile, she’ll live the worst humiliation for a high-breed demon like herself. 

“She’s here, search her around! Don’t forget to seal her as quickly as possible before her companions come.” A man voiced out in a commanding tone, probably the leader of this dangerous capture.

 “We’ll be able to do whatever we want with her in our hands, name a price and we’ll get it.” Another one talked, he was the closest to her spot: behind a large trunk to shadow her small frame. By peering discreetly Kagura could count four of them, though they had divided midway in their hunt, one to chase her and the other to . “Fame, women, money, everything will open up to us!”

 The girl cringed at his smug face. _Not with your bloated stomach anyway. Who’d want a nasty man like you?_ Her hand rested on the opposite shoulder, as if to ease the severe injuries, two holes there, three on the left leg and one on the right one. Could she be called a walking-cheese now?

 “Fucktards…” She cursed under her breath, her legs trembled if pain. She couldn’t much more and those humans were going to get and seal her in a _Shikigami_ and let _Onmyoujis_ bid until someone buy her for a ridiculous price. “If only I had my umbrella, Kamui was right when he said to always bring it with me.”

 It hitched her to just go and launch at them but that would be equal to suicide. So yeah, not really a good idea. Or maybe if she wanted to die which was not the case here. One more string of curses flooded her brain and she started to ponder seriously on how to evade when there are, in all, around ten men pursuing you. She got some moment to rip her cheongsam and wrap her wounds, it bought her some time as the red liquid was becoming more faint.

 There was a river not far, a good idea to disappear, she and her damn blood, if only she was not this tired and wounded. Besides, a single rustling sound and the hunters who are literally two meters far would go and shot her. She couldn't take more bullets. Her breathing was already hoarse and irregular, she couldn’t run, she couldn’t fight. Fact is, she was at her most vulnerable state right now. _It’s just the same as before, someone please come and save me—_

 “Oh, what  do we have here?” The corpulent man mockingly wondered, “Finally got ya.” His tern lips curved into a large rictus, one without pity nor empathy. She didn’t shiver, but stared at him furiously, her eyes gleaming, transpiring of nothing but hate. Her hands curled into a fist and bit her lips, acknowledging that she couldn’t fight back. Their bullets couldn’t even be caught, it burned to her bones. _Humans are great when we’re talking about making deadly weapons._

 “Monster.”

 “Funny’ that you say that when I ain’t a Yato, I’ve never killed any’thing. I bet you couldn’t say this much, lil’ Yato.”

A snarl donned on her face, teeth gritting, “I bet I can. At least we don’t enslave people for our own benefits, maybe we wouldn’t kill if you humans weren’t so greedy.” They had, after all, chose a fourteen years old girl like her as their prey, mercilessly shooting her with customized bullets, just to be able to gain what? Glory, perhaps? There was no glory in this, only selfishness she couldn’t stand.

 On the other hand, the hunter just chuckled before mumbling what sounded like a mantra while holding a paper manikin like how a priest would, with a cross (at least, in the _shonen mangas_ she read). Her last sight would be light surrounding her.

* * *

“Sougo, you should at least give it a try. The Shogun bought it for us, it’s the first Yato we’ve ever caught as a shikigami, it would be a shame to sell it back. Besides, you never had one yet and a Shinsengumi captain should have a high-ranked demon as his shikigami! Think of the image, not only of how useful it could be.” Kondo tried to reason his “son” for the nth time, the lass had been hell-bent on never having what they called a _shikigami_. A soul partner who can provide more support than a human’s and was more loyal, too.

“Kondo-san is right, you are famous for being the prodigy, both as a swordsman and as an _Onmyouji_ , yet didn’t sustain one.” The puff of smoke were drive in mid-air, patterned in small and hazardous waves. Sougo’s face contorted in irritation, Hijikata-san could poison his lungs if he wanted but it bothered him, he hated the odour which reminisced him of good old times. It wasn’t a good thing.

“I don’t need anyone to protect my back or help me. A shikigami will only bother me, consume my energy that I could use into spells or parchments—”

“You know you’re wrong,” Hijikata crashes his cigarette suddenly, he had enough of the teenager, sometimes. He had always been childish when not around his now late-sister and he knew that, deeply within, Okita wasn’t really bad to the core, however, he was stubborn. “You are injured. You always get more injured than us and it’s not only because you are reckless.”

The flaxen-haired boy was, indeed, covered with bandages. “I kill more than you or any other members. I don’t need a dead to watch my back.”

“Do you consider Zaki’ to be useless? He ain’t strong, that’s for sure, but he’s useful. He watches our back when we fight and supervise us from within and both you and I know that you need someone to do the same for you. Even you can’t dodge ten blades at the same time, not to mention a hundred.” He sighed, it was tiring, speaking to him could be as gratifying as speaking to a stone. At least, stone wouldn’t talk back.

“He’s not, but he could let you die. Please die, Hijikata-san.”

“OI, I’M TRYING TO BE SERIOUS THERE!”

“C-Come on, calm down, you two.” Kondo distanced by pushing them to the opposite direction, instead, he handed out the paper manikin to the youngest, imitating the ultimate skill of young girls nowadays— the puppy stare. “Give it a chance you don’t know who you might meet.” His smile is warm akin to one of a parent to his son, and Sougo surrendered.

He hesitantly accepted the piece of paper, his eyes examined it, though the seal was one of the highest-quality to never allow the demon inside to escape, the presentation was rather simple. It was human-shaped, with small horns on the head and what looked like a hair accessory. There wasn’t any name on it, no indication of the gender (if Yato even had genders, they didn’t know much about them).

He took a sharp intake of breath, closed his eyes and focused on what was beneath this lifeless piece of white. There was like a feeling of fire, not a blazing flame but gentle light, like a candle’s one. Okita wondered if this was normal, but soon shrugged it as he felt a presence slowly sipping out.

“YOU! I’LL SPILL YOUR GUTS!” A high voice bellowed, he didn’t have the time to cock an eyebrow that he was already thrown against a wall, the strength was inhuman— definitely— he broke the wall, coughed blood. When his eyes traveled to a girl. First, she was very petite, pretty much around fourteen-fifteen years old, pale and the, her most striking features.

Red hair and big, round eyes. She looked frail. _Is she really the Yato? Wait, she did throw me._

“Wait, you are not the one who sealed me.” She was obviously bewildered— he almost laughed at her own naïveté— she looked like a lost child. One who can crash you against a wall, but still. He was having a hard time believing that she was a Yato, the strongest demon clan they ever heard of. “YOU!” She glared at him, “Tell me what day is it. Who are you? Where am I?”

“Ahum, Today is...The fourth of June, thursday and you are at the Shinsengumi compound. This boy is called kita Sougo, your well...Future onmyouji.” Kondo answered though not asked, he was sure that Sougo was alright but would he be able to tame her? She sure didn’t look cooperative. 

Actually, she was furious.

“No, I won’t. I want my freeness—”

Okita corrected, “Freedom—”

“My freedom back!” _Maybe the fire I felt was her anger. It didn’t hurt, though._ “It’s better for you guys too, or Kamui and Mucchan are going to kill all of you, no exceptions. Release me, you have no right to keep me as your pet—”

“The correct term would be _shikigami_ .” Red clashed with blue. Adrenaline rose from his toes to his head, there was something about that make him boil from excitement, in the way she was so confident even in this kind of situations. “And it’s better to keep you, instead of letting souls and demons roam free and steal living people’s soul energy,” he scrambled, stood up to flash a smirk at her. (A vein popped on her face.) “You need it too, right, so you won’t disappear, you’ll end up as _shikigami_ anyway.”

“As if, I don’t need anything from you puny humans.” She send him a challenging smile, a few days had passed since her capture which meant her body had been fully healed by then, not even a single scratch was left. Also, they were in a traditional japanese room, no sunlight and the weather was still bearable, she could easily pummel those three men. “Give it to me,” she pointed the paper, “release me.”

 “Maa maa, Sougo and young lady, we should calm down and sit dow—”

“It’s no use, Kondo-san, they are already fighting each other. I think she’s perfectly fitted for him, no one could serve this idiot for long anyway,” Hijikata sipped his cup of tea which turned cold over the time while his hand rummaged through his pocket, flicking a bird-cut manikin out of it. Immediately after, a man appeared. “Oi, Yamazaki, how does a Yato seal a contract?”

“I have no idea, vice-commander.” A perplexed face was plastered on him, he wa considered to be the spy and the knowledgeable one of the Shinsengumi, for he had lived a long time and was good at socializing. “I mean, they are secluded, the best way would be asking...her.” He glanced at the blur of red mixing with brown, “Is she the Yato for captain Okita?”

Hijikata nodded. “Well,” he decided to finally walk to the two kids and kick one on the other. He was used to dealing with sadistic brats, and they were destroying the room (Kondo already passed out!). The girl was biting Sougo’s arm while the said victim was crushing her leg, the two were about to cry out of pain yet resisted, as if on some battle of who could withstand it the longest. “Stop destroying the room and make a contract already!”

“Die, Hijikata-san.”

“You die first, Sadist!” The redhead relinquished her teeths from his arms, only to ball up her fist and strike right on his jaw. That’s where it hurt the most, if she believed her brother, and it seemed to work. “Shut up Mayora—” How did she know he liked mayonnaise? “I’m not going to be anybody’s shikigami, especially not his.”

“Gyaha, you bitch, you could have avoided hitting me on the jaw!” His eyes glinted in a strange way. He wasn’t bored. “I’ll make you suffer until I die, right, Chinakami?”

“Who are you calling a Chinakami, Chihuahua?”

Hijikata and Yamazaki observed the scene unfolding in front of them, not sure if it was a good thing that the boy finally found what could be considered as a match or cry because of the new sadist here. Besides, Yamazaki wasn’t feeling good about it, even if Okita did look entertained, the girl emitted nothing but disgust, for unknown reasons. Sure, some demons and souls were resilient in making a contract and serve humans but they eventually got used to it and considered it to be good option to get enough energy to live, without killing off anybody. His family, for example, had always served government, now under the form of the Shinsengumi. 

The Yato Clan was mysterious, were hardly seen and seemed to see it more as a humiliating thing rather than a win-win deal. They weren’t the only one, the strongest clans usually thought the same, maybe do they feel superior to humans or was there something he did not know of?

“Vice-commander, they are about to break commander’s Otae-shrine.”

“Ah.”


	2. This is a overused Shoujo Trope!

Kagura frowned at the puny humans in front of her and wondered if they weren't lacking vital organs like the brain. Not only had she been compelled to accept a Shikigami contract with one of them but they had absolutely no idea on how to do it. She deemed them to be geniuses.

It was the first time they caught a Yato and the said clan never made any ritual as they weren't supposed to ever get trapped, no one knew what to exactly do. The girl wasn't willing either, if only they could free her right away, it would have been much simpler. She was losing patience. 

"Are you guys really onmyoujis? You are not competent at all!" 

"So you don't know anything about the contract too?" Yamazaki was reddening of shame. He was a spy and they were supposed to be the Shinsengumi, the police who rule laws on both the living and dead world. "Sorry Yato-san, it's the first time I even meet one, we don't have many data on your clan." For example and as silly as it could sound, he expected a Yato to be all muscular and sturdy, very scary too. Prejudice to be damned, even if the redhead was obviously irritated it as almost cute. 

"No wonder we've never been caught until now. Those trappers were well-prepared, you guys are not." They had just bought her, how rich were they anyway? With this growth of the onmyouji business, they shouldn't get this much of money…

"Shut your mouth China, if we knew that Yatos were some brat we wouldn't even hunt your clan." 

"I'm stronger than all of you combined, jealous of my beauty, uh?" 

She arched an eyebrow, feigning mocking indifference. "Beauty? What? You, the negative sex-appeal demon? That's a good joke." Okita smirked when a vein popped on her forehead, "Flatboard~" 

"Who's flat board, shorty?" She yelled back. No one had the right to criticise her bust size, it was a very sensible point for any female and she remembered that no one dared to joke about it with Mutsu. She had destroyed Curly perm once, just because he laughed that it felt 'like a man's'. 

"Shorty? Wouldn't that be you?" Well, he was the shortest member of the Shinsengumi being doted with a humble one meter and seventy, he was rather average in comparison to the detestable Hijikata-san. 

"Girls can be short, it's cute while short boys are just shorty!" She totally forgot that her own brother, even though he was among the strongest, measured the same as the flaxen-haired boy. 

"Shut up you two!" Hijikata finally interrupted, the poor Kondo-san who got his Otae altar destroyed...He'll probably pass out upon waking up and learning the news which also means more work for him, the vice-commander. If the two brats devastated, even more, the compound he would burn out from working! "You know what? I'll call Ketsuno-san and ask him, he must know." 

Kagura snorted, "I don't want to become a Shikigami." Especially not to a shot Chihuahua like Okita, there was something she disliked in him yet there was a resemblance between him and Kamui. They smelled of blood, of something dangerous. Her brother was totally safe for her but this onmyouji was not— hell what was she going to do once they finalize the pact? She'll have to obey his every command and so on. She was going to find her with a leash around her neck, unable to go away.

"Does it really bother you this much? It's like a job, you get paid with a share of our energy and we get you food too," it's not like he really cared for her but this was the first he had seen a demon so vehement in becoming a Shikigami. There was a matter of pride, of course, however, survival had to prime and she didn't seem to be killer. Not only she didn't look like one but she shone of innocence. 

She didn't want to respond. Curly head and Mutsu were also kind of partners, without the use of any contract and obligation— it was out of mutual respect and friendship, Kagura admired this kind of bonds. Natural, it was not about responsibility, commands or survival, they did it on they own will because that is what they want. It should have been the same for other onmyoujis, too, the reason of this traditional contract was unfathomable for her. His ignorance just fueled more fire in her hate, why was it so hard for him to understand? 

Then again, she was a Yato. She personally, had never killed and couldn't deny the fact that most of her fellow clansmen were bloody murderers. They couldn't see her in a new light, they were beasts who needed a tight surveillance. "It's not like I have the choice anyway." 

Meanwhile, Hijikata was phoning to Seimei, the chief of the Katsuno family and known to be the best onmyouji of Edo. As he worked for the bakufu for Edo's peace like the Shinsengumi, the two often cooperated together and besides, he and Seimei held their pride in being serious. "So..Yeah...Um...What, really?" He glanced hesitantly at the two brats throwing daggers at each other with their eyes, "Yeah, I'll work it out. Thank." He shivered at the idea he had just heard. This couldn't be possible...

"So, you know how to do it now Hijikata-san?" 

"Well, it's only an idea and...And..." He began to cough violently, caught in a sudden catharsis of invisible obstacles stuck in his throat like the words he was supposed to utter. Sougo was already fond of trying to kill him and was going to love it even more soon. "Well, you're a female right?" 

"Obviously." 

"Ketsuno-san also had a female, humanoid Shikigami and they sealed their contract with..Err...A kiss. On the lips. DON'T ASK ME WHY I DON'T KNOW EITHER!" 

"Are you serious Hijikata-san? Do you want me to kill you? No, let me kill you for saying such imbecile words—" Sougo aimed at him with a bazooka that he drew from his rotten heart, probably. "Repeat again. China and I need to KISS? Is it a shoujo manga? Is the author a retard? You are a retard."

"THE LAST SENTENCE WASN'T EVEN A QUESTION OIII !" 

Kagura sat silently. "What's a kiss?" They looked at her as if she was mad. "I said- what's a kiss? What are you two fussing about?"

"You don't know?" Yamazaki sweat-dropped, sure they were a secluded clan but he would have thought that some almost universal gesture applied to them, like a kiss on the mouth as a way to show romantic affection. "It's when you have a lips-contact between two people." 

"Sadaharu licks me, sometimes on my mouth," he was a big dog and a gentle lick of the cheeks ended up with her with saliva on her whole face. 

"Well, it's different if it's your pet. For us, a kiss on the mouth is only done between lovers." The dark haired man added, praying to not be crushed right away. On the opposite, Kagura seemed to be curious. 

"We're not lovers so it's like a dog's lick right? Anyway, it's weird, why would be the mouth something related to love? I love eating food and it's with the mouth but that's different too right? You can't compare your boyfriend to food right?" She was in deep thought, "though I think foods' better than a man." 

Hijikata face-palmed himself. "At least it's not a problem to you—" 

"NO. This chihuahua is dirty everywhere, I don't want to even just touch him!" 

"Same for China." He wasn't willing to kiss such brat either. 

The demon vice-commander, as he was nicknamed, felt the urge to slap his face a second time and harder. The two teenagers couldn't give him a way of rest? Why were they acting like damn five years children? "You two don't mind giving up your first kiss so hurry up and do it." 

"It's not even sure that it's how it works and it's disgusting—" 

"Right!" 

Of course, the first time they agree would be against him. Hijikata clenched his teeth and summoning the force he had, crushed their two heads against each other, careful in making lips contact all while reciting something. "Oh Kami-sama, this demon shall— JUST SEAL THEIR CONTRACT PLEASE!" 

As if a god really heard his prayer, he observed a familiar light scribing something on the paper manikin: the characters for "Okita Sougo" and "Kagura" appeared in the middle. "It's completed..." He didn't how the pair were still connected by their mouths and were frozen. Not because it was a kiss but simply because getting so close to each other was utterly sickening and revolting.

"It's compleeeeeete!" He yelled louder. It was an odd satisfaction which washed over him, kinda as if rejoicing in connecting a Juliet and Romeo couple by fate. Or something like that— Hijikata shrugged. 

"Vice-commander! They are fainting! Did you hear me? Okita-san and Yato-san are green!" 

Hijikata ignored him. 

Yamazaki decided to separate the two in pity, they immediately ran to the artificial and a rather small lake not far. The redhead followed the flaxen-haired on instinct, by the time they arrived they'd be surely cleaning their mouths of any "China" or "Sadist" cooties. He sighed. 

"Vice-Commander, you are dancing on the sacred Otae-san's smiling picture." 

Hijikata looked at his feets, he was positively crushing and dirtying the said picture. "Ah." 


End file.
